Two of My Favorite SNL sketches

The Arts Are Life

Jan 5

In junior year of college I was pretty depressed to be honest. I had moved into a new dormitory and thought I would be so happy to get my own single-occupancy room, but I didn't realize I had depression until that year. It was a huge battle with myself and my inner darkness, and I didn't understand how important it was to seek professional help when in crisis. During this time I chanted a lot to make it through, and one thing that helped me get through this painful time was watching a lot of Saturday Night Live sketches. I don't remember the exact first time I watched SNL, but I definitely remember that and the web series Awkward Black Girl became my comedy go-to's that year. During the holidays, when I felt lonely and depressed, I watched some of these sketches and they helped bring some light to me in my time of darkness:

"White Christmas": The sketch came out in 2013 and I don't think I saw it until my junior year. Of course, the sketch didn't come without its controversy, and frankly after finishing the sketch I don't remember if I laughed or was just really confused. In summary, the sketch is a trailer about a white woman (played by Cecily Strong) who has all kinds of stress in her life, including her house being foreclosed on. The Black realtor (played by Jay Pharaoh, a former SNL cast member) tells her her house is being foreclosed on, and the woman is desperate. She packs up her car and goes with her white son, Rasheed (played by Kyle Mooney), to her Mama Ruth's house for the holidays. The voiceover person says that the movie is a Black holiday movie for white audiences, featuring tropes such as women snapping peas at a table and laughing, a gun-toting grandma spun off of Madea (played by Paul Rudd) and a white guy wearing a necklace over a turtleneck. The scene cuts to a group of white women talking and one of them (Aidy Bryant) takes a line straight from a Black holiday movie that men will leave Black women for white women. The waiter at their table (Kenan Thomson) looks into the camera and gives a side-eye, like "You are white. This is laughable that you would even say such a line." The trailer also features white people singing in a gospel choir, led by the hilarious Mike O'Brien (the guy wearing the sweater over the turtleneck) with Bobby Moynihan doing the most passionate singing out of all the other white gospel singers. And there is a scene where a group of white men in black clothes and Fedora hats dances to New Kids on the Block, and the white women watching them at home are screaming and one of them throws a red thong at one of the dancers (this is a parody of a dance scene from The Best Man Holiday where the men dance to "Can You Stand the Rain." Up to that point I hadn't seen The Best Man Holiday yet so I had to look up the trailer to understand the reference.) The voiceover person reads the critic reviews; one says "Finally, a holiday movie for white people." Another says, "For the first time I talked to the screen and it felt great." The third review is from Vibe magazine and it says "Can't we have anything?" And the last review calls White Christmas, "the Macklemore of movies." (if you don't know the reference, Macklemore is a white rapper from Seattle.) The sketch ends with the voiceover person saying the actor's names; they are all Paul Rudd, and the scene cuts to Jay Pharaoh looking in the camera with a deadpan expression as the person introduces him as Paul Rudd, when clearly he is not Paul Rudd. Jay Pharaoh throws his hands up to the ceiling and asks "Are we gonna get in trouble for this?"
"Sump'n Claus": the sketch opens up with Pete Davidson and Jay Pharaoh talking about their Christmas. Jay asks Pete if he is excited for Christmas, but Pete says he doesn't think he will get anything from Santa since he hasn't been on his nice list, but Jay says he can always expect something from Sump'n Claus. Sump'n Claus (Kenan Thompson) is Black Santa, and he is out to make sure every white person who does crazy shit gets what they want for Christmas. Along with the help of his lovely backup elf singers (Cecily Strong and Sasheer Zamata) he raps first about a woman named Sheila (Vanessa Bayer) who got in a fight with her husband (Kyle Mooney) and slashed his tires when he left her. Sump'n Claus hands her money even though she did something bad. He then sings about a man named Marcus who is dealing with so much stress at his job and then blows up at everyone, smashing his computer and then getting fired and arrested. When he leaves the elevator with his stuff packed in a box to leave the job, Sump'n Claus goes up to him, and gives him free cash. Sump'n Claus jokes that he can't tell where he got the money from, and then tells a story about how he worked at the North Pole for Santa, and one day Mrs. Claus (Aidy Bryant) started flirting with him and Santa caught them in the act. Honestly this sketch was hilarious.